Snow and Cold Temps Continue and Promote More Open Terrain Across the Southeast and Mid Atlantic Ski Areas!

We’re seeing snow from North Carolina up through Western Maryland with some mixed precip (freezing rain and sleet) added in for good measure. It appears the heavier snow so far from this last storm system has left 3-5" of snow in North Carolina, a trace in Tennessee and pretty much skipped Virginia. West Virginia got another few inches of snow and expects 4-6" more today (as does Garrett County Maryland, home to Wisp.

Here’s the breakdown by states. The great news is that this burst of cold and snow has been perfectly timed for those of you who are planning to spend the MLK weekend at your favorite ski area.

If you have not made reservations as yet – WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!???! The conditions are perfect and more slopes are open today than at any point this entire season. Many ski areas will be at or close to 100% by Saturday so PACK YOUR GEAR and get your rear up here and hit the slopes!

Wisp Report is reporting 25° and no snow as yet overnight, but they are reporting 10" of snow thus far this week and 2-4" is expected today through this evening. Wisp added a couple more open slopes to the mix and now have 23 of their 35 trails open! Lori Epp wrote, "Mainstreet, Eye Opener, Odin’s Chute & Highline Pass will have a PM opening."

Conditions look great up there and will only be "primo-better" this weekend. Make reservations today!

Snowshoe Mountain is reporting 20° this morning and another 3" of snow to make it 10" since Monday. (…and 59" on the season.)

They have 47 trails open and 4-6" more snow in the forecast for today! Laura Parquette writes, "More snow is on the way!! Ten inches of fresh powder has fallen on the resort since Monday afternoon, and another 3-5 inches is possible today, with even more on the way through the weekend. Snowmaking occured overnight last night, and will restart this evening as temperatures allow, ensuring conditions will be absolutely fantastic for the upcoming holiday weekend."

Timberline Resort is reporting 23° this morning and they have seen the most natural snow from this week’s prolonged system of snow storms. They are reporting anothe 1/2" of snow from last night, but 18" since Monday and 68.2" on the season. That kind of snowfall equals more slopes to open soon! They have 14 trails open for today and POWDER conditions.

Canaan Valley is reporting 16° this morning and 4-6" more snow since yesterday morning and 13-17" since Monday and they have 10 trails open today. Great conditions await you and probably a few more slope openings soon.

Winterplace Resort reported 4" of new snow in the last 24 hours and it is still snowing up there! They now have seen 7" since Monday and 30" on the season. Winterplace has 20 of 29 trails open and they wrote, "We are working on opening even more trails! Check back! The Snowtubing Park / Kiddie Park will open at 1 pm."

VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN REPORT

None of the resorts in Virginia reported any snowfall as yet, but there is inclement weather in the area as of this report.

Wintergreen Resort is reporting 19° but no snow as yet although Anne Marie Jones writes, "Today’s forecast is calling for snow to fall all day leaving 4-6 inches of the fluffy stuff." They have 10 trails open today and they continue to make lots of snow.

Massanutten Resort is at 26° and they now have the most terrain open than at any point prior in the season. Today they are offering 9 trails and snow tubing.

They write, "We did make snow last niight. Upper Dixie Dare and Pacesetter now open."

Bryce Resort is open with the same 7 of 8 trails, tubing and terrain park features. They did make snow overnight but report no new natural snow.

TENNESSEE MOUNTAIN REPORT

Ober Gatlinburg is at 32° this morning and saw a TRACE of new snow and made machine made snow as well. They write, "Thursday Session will run from Noon – 10pm with $28 Lift Ticket. Weeknight 6pm – 10pm Lift Ticket Only $15! Upper Half of Bear Run open. Mogul Ridge is not groomed."

NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAIN REPORT

Thanks to Baker Perry and their new snow measuring equipment and the network of "snow measurerers" we were able to log in to a new system and see the official reported snowfall accummulations as of this morning. Basically it looks the official tallies are a high of 3.3" of snow in Blowing Rock (Watauga County) and officially 1.8" of snow in Avery County although we have received several reports of 3-4" at several locations, so we’ll go with 4" up towards Banner Elk.

Snow is still falling in some areas, and in others they are seeing a mix of snow and sleet right now. We have detailed the snow totals within the report…so let’s get to it.

Appalachian Ski Mountain – 21° and reporting 3" of natural snow and it was still snowing as of this report at 7:45am. They still have 8 trails open of the 10 they have and terrain parks and ice skating open for today.

App did announce that they will be 100% open for the MLK weekend (as we reported earlier in the week) and even more impressive is that due to how much snow they’ve been able to blast the slopes with this week, they WILL NOT be making snow during ski session hours. They are making snow right now on Hard Core and Thin Slice and will have those two open for the first time this season on Saturday.

Brad Moretz, General Manager of App, said, "In keeping with our customer service tradition, cold weather and comfortable base, we expect to limit snowmaking to nighttime hours for the foreseeable future. More specifically, snowmaking should commence at 9pm or later. Now that we have a comfortable base, we are pleased to provide the best possible experience without snowmaking in progress."

Cataloochee – 28° – They are reporting 2"-3" of snow! I called and spoke with one of their staff and she said that it was beautiful in Maggie Valley this morning! The weather report up there is saying that they are experiencing freezing rain as of 8am, but conditions are pretty sweet at The Cat today. They added another 6" to their base and opened 2 more trails to offer 10 of 14 today, tubing and terrain park features as well.

Hawksnest Resort is reporting 21° this morning and 3" of new snow. They have added one more open trail to offer 7 today and their tubing hill as well. Hawksnest announced that they will have TOP GUN open this weekend. Justin Grimes reported, "Wow, days like today are what we live for in snowsports. Packed powder from top to bottom without snowguns blasting. We are making snow on our signature slope, Topgun, with plans to open the gun soon."

Grimes also said that with snowmaking weather and more natural snow forecast for Friday, look for even more slope openings and increased snow depths.

As you plan for MLK, please note that the Topgun Snowsports School at Hawksnest is staffed up for the Holiday. The school takes advanced reservations for Private and Semi-private lessons and for their popular Kiddy Hawk program.

Ski Beech – 19° on our official weather reporting station up on Beech although Ski Beech is reporting 26°. Gil Adams up there reported 2-4" of snow and of course Sugar reported 5" so we’re going with the 4" snow report. Ski Beech has 10 of 15 trails open today and that is the MOST terrain they’ve had this season and they upped their base depth by 2" as well so conditions should be super for today and the upcoming weekend.

(Have NONE of you guys been skiing or riding at Ski Beech this season? We have yet to get a decent photo from up there. Gil? Send us something!

Sugar Mountain is reporting 18° and 5" of new snow, which takes them to 16" on the season. Sugar is reporting the most snowfall accummulation in the region this morning as official reporting stations are stating accummulations from 2-4". As we understand it, Sugar has the new snow measuring equipment, but we’re not seeing any reports from them as yet. We’ll keep you posted.

We did get a few emails about Sugar’s giant increase in base depth Wednesday morning. Even so they added 2" more to their reported base today and are reporting 28-74" and 14 trails open today. Evidently we aren’t the only ones paying attention to base depth reporting as Tommy Amaker wrote, "Hey guys, in case you haven’t noted it, Sugar upped their base on Sunday by 4", Monday by 6", Tuesday by 2", and Wednesday by 30"."

Add 2" more today. Jennifer Curry of Marion wrote, "How can a resort say that they can make 6" of snow one day and yet be able to make 30" the next?"

Jennifer, I can not answer that one. That is a question for those guys.

Sugar Mountain writes, "With cold temperatures hovering for the next several days, snowmaking continues to increase the existing base on open slopes. Other slopes like The Terrain Park and the Ski School Play Yard are scheduled to open by the weekend. Whoopdedoo and Little Nell are two slopes that have been added to the count for today."

Conditions will be M-A-R-V-E-L-O-U-S at Sugar for today and snowmaking is in progress. Sugar added that with the great conditions that they have right now, "snowmaking machines are aimed away from skier/snowboarder traffic as much as possible."

Wolf Ridge Resort is at 31° and they are experiencing freezing rain which is packing down the 5" of snow that they have received yesterday and overnight according to one of their front office staffers.

Wolf is trying as hard as they can according to her – to get the trails at the top open in time for the weekend. We’ll keep you posted.

Mike is the Editor and founder of SkiSoutheast.com, SkiNC.com and ResortCams.com. Since September 1996 he has posted close to 14,000 posts, articles, photos and videos promoting all of the ski areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.Mike is the father of four daughters, is an avid skier and enjoys golf, tennis, kayaking and hiking in the mountains. Winter snowsports and Summer boating on Watauga Lake are among his favorite pastimes.

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